Which AWS Service Should a Beginner Use?

This is the most common confusion point. Here's my simple decision tree: EC2 for full control and learning. Elastic Beanstalk for managed deployments with less config. ECS/Fargate for containers. For a first-time deployment, I recommend EC2 — you learn the most, and it's what most real companies use for basic workloads.

Step 1: Launch an EC2 Instance (Free Tier)

# AWS Console → EC2 → Launch Instance
# Settings:
AMI: Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
Instance type: t2.micro (free tier)
Key pair: Create new → download .pem file
Security group: Add rules:
  - SSH (22) from your IP
  - HTTP (80) from 0.0.0.0/0
  - HTTPS (443) from 0.0.0.0/0
Storage: 8GB gp3 (free tier)

Step 2: Connect and Set Up Your Server

# On your local machine
chmod 400 your-key.pem
ssh -i your-key.pem ubuntu@YOUR_EC2_PUBLIC_IP

# On the server
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
sudo apt install -y docker.io nginx git

# Start Docker
sudo systemctl enable docker
sudo usermod -aG docker ubuntu
# Log out and back in for group change

# Start Nginx
sudo systemctl enable nginx
sudo systemctl start nginx

Step 3: Deploy Your App with Docker

# Pull and run your Dockerized app
docker pull yourusername/yourapp:latest

docker run -d \
  --name myapp \
  -p 3000:3000 \
  --restart unless-stopped \
  -e NODE_ENV=production \
  -e DATABASE_URL="your_db_url" \
  yourusername/yourapp:latest

# Check it's running
docker ps
docker logs myapp

Step 4: Configure Nginx as Reverse Proxy

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/myapp

# Paste this config:
server {
    listen 80;
    server_name your-domain.com;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://localhost:3000;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection 'upgrade';
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_cache_bypass $http_upgrade;
    }
}

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/myapp /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
sudo nginx -t
sudo systemctl reload nginx

Step 5: SSL Certificate (Free, via Let's Encrypt)

sudo apt install -y certbot python3-certbot-nginx
sudo certbot --nginx -d your-domain.com
# Follow the prompts — certbot auto-configures Nginx for HTTPS
sudo certbot renew --dry-run  # Test auto-renewal

You now have a live, SSL-secured app deployed on AWS. Cost: ₹0 for 12 months on free tier.